I hadn’t gotten a good look at it before we were enveloped by a horde of panicked ghosts, all trying to get away from whatever it was and to snack on us in the bargain.
Which was probably what had Daisy so spooked, I thought, as she was dragged back through the trees, protesting.
“I was just stretching my legs,” she said haughtily.
“Damn it, woman! You don’t have any legs!” the colonel said, his muttonchops vibrating in indignation.
“Do, too,” she said, and then peered down worriedly as I struggled to get up.
“And this is no time for a stroll!”
I couldn’t agree more.
The idea had been to arrive incognito, because phasing didn’t use the Pythian power. Or any magic at all, at least none that a normal magic worker was likely to detect. I assumed that was how Johanna had been evading me: my power could only find her if she used it, or messed up the time stream, and so far, she’d done neither. We, on the other hand, had just made a big damn entrance.
“Think they noticed?” I asked Hildegarde, who was lying on her side, panting.
“If they didn’t, they’re blind,” she wheezed, and sat up.
“You okay?” I asked Abigail, who was still flat on the ground and not looking okay. Her once-nice updo was everywhere, and her brown eyes were like saucers.
“Fail-safe is usually more of an . . . honorary position,” she whispered.
“Well, it’s been upgraded,” Hilde said. “Help me up!”
They struggled back to their feet while the colonel stepped in front of me. Dad’s second ghost was an old gentleman wearing a blue uniform with massive epaulets whom I’d briefly met once before. He’d seemed pretty unfriendly then, but Roger vouching for me had worked wonders.
“There appear to be a number of hostiles in the area,” he reported.
“Hostiles?” I repeated, and immediately, a series of images started cascading in front of my eyes, courtesy of the power’s viewfinder to the future. I hadn’t asked for them, but I guess it thought I should know that a forest full of Pythias were converging on our location.
Hilde was right: they knew we were here.
Like, all of them.
For a moment, I just stared as what looked like every Pythia in the last fifteen hundred years flipped in front of my eyes.
“They’re not supposed to be doing this,” Abigail said, apparently seeing the same shit I was. “They’re not even supposed to meet!”
“Gertie has been breaking the rules,” I told her as my power roamed outward, trying to find a path through the insanity.
And kept on looking.
“She always did,” Hilde murmured while Abigail continued to stare into space, caught somewhere between horror and fascination. It didn’t look like the Pythian power usually put on this kind of show for the acolytes. At least, I really hoped not, because some of them were out there, too.
Make that all of them. My power’s field of vision suddenly widened, leaving me staring at what looked like an army in white. The forest was crawling; no way were we getting through all that.
“Change of plan,” I told everyone hoarsely.
A moment later, Abigail took off, the colonel on her heels, and I looked at Hilde. “Are you sure you want to try this?”
She nodded. “If I can find Gertie alone, I can phase in and surprise her.”
“Yeah, but will she listen?” It wasn’t exactly her strong suit.
“She’ll listen to me.” It sounded certain.
“How do you know?”